Cassini Closing In On Saturn

RINGWORLDS

Cassini Positional chart generated using David Seal's Solar System Simulator at JPL

Pasadena - Mar 12, 2003
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, March 5. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" web page.

Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) Flight Software (FSW) checkout continued this week with the following activities uplinked and executed: calibration of inertial reference unit-A, a 7COAST demonstration with rates, star ID suspend demo with rates, checkout of sun sensor assembly-B, several high water mark clears, and fault protection log pointer resets.

Playback data from off-track activities has been received. Everything looks normal, and detailed analysis continues. An inertial reference unit-B checkout and calibration activity was also uplinked for execution next week.

The project held a final uplink approval meeting for the Command and Data Subsystem (CDS) flight software checkout activities. Procedures and files for the checkout were approved, with uplink and checkout activities to begin on March 24.

Preliminary port three for Science Operations Plan implementation of tour sequences S15/S16 occurred this week. The third and final input port occurs next week. Additionally, all teams have been reviewing the first official merged sequence for S17/S18.

The Science Planning Team process for C37 concluded this week with the delivery of the port two products and the handoff package to the Sequence team. Subsequence generation for C37 began with a kick-off meeting held on Tuesday.

The March Instrument Operations working group meeting featured a SEQ_CONVERT tool tutorial by the Mission Sequence Subsystem development team.

System Engineering has created a web page to assist with tour Verification and Validation activities. The site will contain links to various matrices, templates, and documentation in support of V&V. Also posted will be materials presented at last week's Cassini Design Team meeting including a detailed uplink system V&V schedule, and the uplink V&V kickoff agenda.

Delivery coordination meetings (DCM) were held for Version 9 of the Mission Sequence Subsystem, and the Instrument Operations Science Operations and Planning Computer (SOPC) Broadcast Keep-Alive scripts. A number of the keep-alive utilities have been updated due to changes in the Deep Space Mission Services firewall.

The Jupiter Magnetosphere Synchrotron Radiation experiment was noted in the February 2003 "APS News," a publication of the American Physics Society, as a significant Astrophysics event of 2002. Even though the Cassini RADAR is not mentioned by name, it was the radiometer instrument that collected the raw data for the experiment.

RINGWORLDS

No Rest On The Way To Titan

artwork by David Seal

Paris - Sept 2, 2002
After an adventurous 7-year long tour among the planets, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will arrive at Saturn in July 2004. Once there, Cassini will parachute the Huygens probe to Saturn's biggest satellite, Titan. Titan is thought to have an atmosphere similar to the primitive Earth. However, both the probe and the Cassini-Huygens team are not in idle state until 2004. They have plenty of things to keep them busy. Full Details

Rising Storms Revise Story Of Jupiter's Stripes

San Antonio - Mar 07, 2003
Pictures of Jupiter, taken by a NASA spacecraft on its way to Saturn, are flipping at least one long-standing notion about Jupiter upside down.

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.